The Baroque orchestra is the type of orchestra that existed during the Baroque period, commonly identified as 1600-1750. [1] Its origins were in France where Jean-Baptiste Lully added the newly re-designed hautboy and transverse flutes to his vingt-quatre violons du Roy. As well as violins and woodwinds, the baroque orchestra contained continuo instruments such as the theorbo and harpsichord. The baroque orchestra was reasonably small with a maximum of thirty people. The new instrumentation and orchestration soon spread to the rest of Europe.
The term 'Baroque orchestra' is also commonly used today to refer to chamber orchestras giving historically informed performances of baroque or classical on period instruments or replicas. The period-instrument revival during the 1970s inspired the development of the first period-instrument baroque orchestras, led by Nikolaus Harnoncourt, Gustav Leonhardt and Frans Bruggen. Since then many baroque orchestras have been formed across Europe, as well as some in North America. Baroque orchestras of today include:
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